Albert Speer, what has he got to do with Coimbra and Lisbon?

José Barreto
Dec 14, 2017 · 2 min read

In 1941, in the midst of the Fascist dictatorship of Salazar, the exhibition of Modern German Architecture (Neue Deutsche Baukunst by Albert Speer) took place in Lisbon. Albert Speer was Hitler’s War Minister and one of the modern German architects, he held the position of General Director of Urban Planning in Berlin (Generalbauinspector für die Reichshauptstadt). Albert Speer himself was in Portugal. This exhibition was held at the invitation of the Luso-German Guild. Present at that exhibition were the former President of the Republic, General Carmona and the Minister of Public Works, Eng Duarte Pacheco. It seems that the President of the Council António Oliveira Salazar will have visited the exhibition later.
A work was published in German and Portuguese about this exhibition, where several photographs are shown, one of which is the architect Raul Lino, who did the interpreting job between Carmona and Albert Speer.

Albert Speer and Coimbra. What’s up?

Courtesy of Nuno Rosmaninho — model of the University City of Coimbra, by Salazar

From 1940 onwards the city of Coimbra, where the Royal Palace, which houses the Biblioteca Joanina, Chapel of S. Miguel and Room of the Great Acts, is going to go through great tribulations, the extra quarters aside de Royal Palace will be demolished by order of Salazar, with the more or less demonstrated connivance of university professors. The great architectural revolution of Coimbra was beginning. Alta would be sacrificed to build the new University City, with the stamp of Cotinelo Telmo, Cristino da Silva, both architects of the regime. In this modern University City we see the German influence of Albert Speer or Italian of Piacentini, architect of the Rectory of the University in the City of Rome.

From July 2013 onwards, the University of Coimbra and the Rua da Sofia belong to the nucleus of the cities consecrated as World Heritage by UNESCO.

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